Internet of Business hosts dedicated IoT Build events focused on the needs of software application developers and enterprise network architects working to build the next major innovations in this space.

IoT Build: hello world, welcome IoT developers

It’s official. Being a dedicated Internet of Things (IoT) software application developer is now a formalized job title, an official workplace designation and role. It is, as they say, now ‘a thing’.

We’ve been here before, with mobile

Somewhere around the turn of the millennium there was a certain disquiet within the software application developer community. The rise of mobile had driven many programmers to question just exactly where they put their stake in the ground.

“I am a developer, therefore I’m a mobile developer,” some coders were heard to assert.

It was a recognition among the software engineering community that if they were gainfully employed in the business of software development, then (given the emphasis on so-called ‘mobile-first’ and ‘mobile-optimized’ technologies) essentially, they could probably call themselves mobile developers.

Therefore I am IoT..?

Are programmers now at the point where they are happy to label themselves as essentially IoT programmers due to the all-pervading nature of the IoT and its ubiquity, relevance and network connectivity to all other applications?

Answer: no, probably not quite yet, not for every developer, but there are a growing breed who will say yes.

Characteristics of IoT programming

So what characteristics can we find in IoT programming and what types of coding proficiency might mark out specific developers as highly IoT-centric?

In terms of real world workflow, we know that IoT applications need to be specifically engineered to continuously analyze the data streams being produced by smart devices — this means IoT developers are good at handling massive data sets, at scale and at speed.

We also know that the vast streams of data coming out of the IoT are just that i.e. they’re vast. This means that IoT application programmers will (hopefully) exhibit some proficiency in working with visualization dashboards and presentation layer technologies. These graphical tools are essential if we are to be able to understand and interpret what is happening on the devices themselves.

IoT ecosystem & lifecycle

Along with an inherent appreciation for networking and software application lifecycle within Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Deployment (CD) scenarios, the IoT developer will also (typically) have a great appreciation for complete software environment ecosystem needs.

The IoT as an ecosystem of ‘living software’ demands intelligent networking, intelligent integration and intelligent event messaging so that A knows what B is doing and so on. Woe betide the IoT developer who thinks they can side step the wider ecosystem connectivity element in even the cleverest new application innovation.

But above all perhaps, the IoT developer will need to have an appreciation for data analytics — being able to bring ‘contextual analytics’ (data-centric software engineering applied at the exact and correct point of relevance for a particular human behavior or machine use case) is a fundamental proficiency that all IoT programmers will be able to show off.

Okay so we’re perhaps not quite at “I am a developer, therefore I’m an IoT developer” as a blanket term yet… but that day is close for many software engineers.

IoT developer events

Internet of Business will this year host two events dedicated to exploring the possibilities and realms that exist within IoT software development.

IoT Build San Francisco is staged from 11th – 12th October 2017 and IoT Build London UK is staged at Olympia Kensington from 14th – 15th November 2017… with more information here.

I am a technology journalist with over two decades of press experience. Primarily I work as a news analysis writer dedicated to a software application development ‘beat’; but, in a fluid media world, I am also an analyst, technology evangelist and content consultant.